Some known vehicle consists include several powered vehicles that generate tractive effort for propelling the vehicle consists along a route. For example, trains may have several locomotives coupled with each other that propel the train along a track. The locomotives may communicate with each other in order to coordinate the tractive efforts and/or braking efforts provided by the locomotives. As one example, locomotives may be provided in a distributed power (DP) arrangement with one locomotive designated as a lead locomotive and other locomotives designated as remote locomotives. The lead locomotive may direct the tractive and braking efforts provided by the remote locomotives during a trip of the consist.
Some known consists use wireless communication between the locomotives for coordinating the tractive and/or braking efforts. For example, a lead locomotive can issue commands to the remote locomotives. The remote locomotives receive the commands and implement the tractive efforts and/or braking efforts directed by the commands. The remote locomotives can communicate responsive messages to the lead locomotive to notify the lead locomotive that the remote locomotive received the command and/or to report the current status of the remote locomotive.
The remote locomotives also can monitor statuses of components of the remote locomotives and report the statuses of these components to the lead locomotive. For example, the remote locomotives can determine if traction motors of the remote locomotives are not loading, can determine statuses of control systems onboard the remote locomotives, or the like. The statuses of these components can be wirelessly communicated back to the lead locomotive. But, the amount of data used to communicate these statuses can be considerably larger than the data communicated from the lead locomotive to command the remote locomotives and/or for the remote locomotives to confirm receipt of the commands. Due to wireless bandwidth limitations, the larger amount of data used to report information that is not used to control movement of the remote locomotives (e.g., commands from the lead locomotive and/or confirmations from the remote locomotives) can cause commands from the lead locomotive and/or confirmations from the remote locomotives to not be communicated. Responsive to not receiving a command from a lead locomotive and/or a confirmation from a remote locomotive (e.g., within a designated period of time), the consist may implement various safety precautions, such as stopping movement of the consist. As a result, travel of the consist can be significantly impacted.